Passenger flights are set to return from London Ashford (Lydd) Airport later this summer.
The airport on Romney Marsh, owned by Saudi businessman Sheikh Fahad al-Athel, and just 13 miles from Rye, confirmed this week that Air Alderney is expected to operate regular services from the airport to destinations including the French airport of Le Touquet.
In an operational update ahead of the launch of the new passenger airline service, David Hainsworth, head of finance and operations at airport operator FAL Aviation, said: “Our short, medium and long-term business plan to transform the airport continues at pace. Re-organisation of airport operations and the build of two new hangars is designed to support existing and new businesses which include engineering services, search and rescue, drone operations, flying schools, business jet services and general aviation.
“Air Alderney commence passenger services to Le Touquet and other destinations from summer 2023.”
In the same update, FAL Aviation acknowledged the current sense of uncertainty in the aviation market but insisted: “The business is well placed to accommodate further initiatives, and interest in the airport continues to build.”
Image Credits: Chris Lawson .
Before anyone gets too excited by this story, have a look at the airline that is proposing to operate these services. Air Alderney has been around since 2017 and operates 2 Britten Norman Islander aircraft – these robust and reliable little aircraft seat 8 passengers, and are smaller and closely related to the BN Trislanders operated by Lyddair up until 2018. Lyddair couldn’t make the scheduled Le Touquet service work at that time. Air Alderney have yet to commence scheduled services, as far as I am aware due to licensing problems, and their booking engine isn’t yet active. Although personally I would love to see them succeed, time will tell.
I flew from Calais to Lydd in the 1950,s with Silver City Airways. We also took a Bedford Dormobile Caravan on board.
Duty free was whisky, Capstan full strength and barley sugars.
All the best
Geoff